FDA oversteps on genetic tests

3:46 PM,
Dec. 26, 2013

Written by

Berin Szoka
TechFreedom

The Food and Drug Administration has ordered 23andMe to cease all marketing. This blocks 23andMe from spreading awareness of the benefits of genetic testing just as many Americans might, for the first time, have considered giving away the company's $99 saliva home-testing kit for Christmas.

The FDA worries that giving Americans more information about their own genomes might lead some to get too much medical care - or not enough. The letter claims a false positive for a breast or ovarian cancer risk factor "could lead a patient to undergo prophylactic surgery, chemoprevention, (or) ...